By Marjorie A. Stair, Bureau Chief
The sugar cane yield decline has been highlighted but little has been said about mango decline except for a few articles by me some years ago. - File
R. C. MAGAREY, of the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, Tully, Queensland, Australia, summarises his paper, 'Microbiological aspects of sugarcane yield decline' in the following abstract:
"Sugarcane is an important Australian crop earning over $1.8 billion in export revenue annually. The crop is grown as a monoculture, and much of the production area has been continually cropped for over 60 years. Increasing production plateaued in the 1970s and soil based constraints now reduce industry income by $200 million annually. The condition, termed sugar cane yield decline (YD), is similar to replant diseases in other crops. Large growth responses to soil fumigation, soil solarisation, and the application of fungicides, suggest that soil microbiology is intimately involved--"
Sugar cane yields in Jamaica peaked in the mid-1960s and, although efforts by the two private sector estates, working with SIRI, has already started to create dramatic improvement in sugar cane yields at New Yarmouth and Worthy Park estates, the decline remains virtually unaddressed in the rest of the country. The decline is compounded by abandonment of cane fields, neglect and a lack of working capital as most cane farmers are, as stated in one presentation to the Parliamentary Commission on the industry, technically and financially bankrupt.
Of course, the new challenge to the European sugar protocol, by disputes brought to the WTO by Brazil and Australia does not augur well for the Jamaican sugar industry. If it, unlike that which prevailed in the banana industry when preferential markets were threatened and changed substantially, can be used as a springboard for a realistic approach to seeking solutions to the myriad of problems now facing the sugar industry, then this could be an example of defeat becoming the mother of success.
The sugar cane yield decline has been highlighted but little has been said about mango decline except for a few articles by me some years ago. Well, here is a piece on mango decline in Oman. The new Managing Director of NCB worked in Oman before returning to Jamaica.
The paper starts by pointing out that decline disorders have been observed in nearly all mango growing regions of the world, usually caused by fungal complexes associated with nutritional deficiencies. In my own case, the decline of Julie mangoes was caused by a combination of deficiency of zinc, soil nematodes and fungi. In Oman, 20,000 mango trees died in 2001 and the disease has spread to all mango-growing areas of the country. Indications are that the disease is associated with a breakdown of defence mechanisms, and associated with high gummosis, leading to subsequent infestation by other pests in twigs, trunks, and roots. The condition does not respond to treatment with either fungicides or insecticides. A similar decline of mangoes has been observed in the United Arab Emirates.
The paper ends by stating that more research is needed to define the various causes of mango decline, which range from a number of diseases.
Jamaica at this time has very little to lose and so much to gain by investing heavily in agricultural research. Compared to expenditure in other areas, the cost is not great, and is simply the cost of the scientists to do the research and the equipment and material needed. There is an international network of agricultural scientists and even funds available to support our local research effort but the research activity has to be properly planned, co-ordinated and sustained as some of these results will not become available within a five year political term. The primary advantage that we have now is that with available satellite, information and other biotechnology, we do not have to resort to outdated methods of research but we can avail ourselves of available technology to take our agriculture right into the 21st century where it belongs.
The decline in agriculture and the vast acreages of idle lands also provides a golden opportunity for rationalisation, for optimising both production and productivity by identifying the most suitable areas for the production of the selected enterprise or enterprises. The sugar industry is literally crying out for this rationalisation even if this, for example the closure of the Hampden factory, has to be literally forced upon us. The Queens of Spain valley, where the Hampden sugar factory is located, has some of the best sugar cane lands in Jamaica. Whether this enough to justify keeping a decrepit and bankrupt factory open is another matter. The Long Pond, like all of the other public sector factories, need to be modernised and given our political culture, can a public sector controlled and operated sugar industry be ever efficient and should taxes be used to shore up the industry or should the public sector role be restricted to regulation and whatever role it must play in the international negotiations for export sugar? How much value has been gained from the heavy investment by government in the sugar industry since the 1970s? And how much longer can the country continue to carry the sugar industry?
One of the things that amaze me about both the attitude of both the Government and the Jamaican people is our staunch refusal to face the facts. None of us have to be Judy Smith, the Maths brain from primary school to realise that we cannot continue to spend what we have not earned, or that there is precious little resources available to the country as very little wealth is being created in the country. There is no expansion of agricultural production, tourism is struggling, manufacturing is in trouble, bauxite is not growing, services are still in the embryo stages and the government continues to grow and invest in large scale, capital intensive and high maintenance projects. The money must run out some day and there must be a limit to the taxes the Government is able to collect, given the situation.
How are we going to increase tourism advertising, pay examination fees for children, provide highly subsidised homes for people and put piped water into every home, maintain super highways and other roads, equip the security forces to fight crime, maintain hospitals, pay teachers and nurses salaries and provide them with working conditions to prevent them from migrating in droves, increase politicians salaries twice per year, subsidise Air Jamaica, and meet all the demands - some totally unrealistic - of the citizens of the nation, if we are a nation in decline and growth continues to elude us as it has for several decades.
It is time for a reality check. The mathematics of Jamaica make no sense unless we assume or expect Government to be the laundry of the lucrative narcotic drugs trade that is keeping the economy afloat in the face of massive decline in all areas of production.
